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11/11/2011
US Soldier Convicted Of Civilian Murder Gets Eight Years
A US army sergeant has been sentenced to just eight years despite being convicted on 15 counts of murdering unarmed civilians and cutting body parts from their bodies as trophies.
Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 26, who has been pictured smiling over a pleading and bloodied youth, was not given the automatic life sentence expected, and instead will be eligible for parole in eight and a half years.
The court heard that Gibbs was the leader of a brutal 'Kill Team', that took fingers from the corpses of their victims in Afghanistan's south.
The verdict and sentence marked the culmination of an 18-month investigation of atrocities carried out by US military personnel committing during a decade of war in Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials have said the misconduct exposed by the case, which evolved from a probe of drug abuse within Gibbs' infantry unit, damaged the US image around the globe.
His civilian lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse, asked the panel for leniency in its parole decision, saying Gibbs had ample time for reflection during his pre-trial confinement and "is not the same person he was when he went to Afghanistan".
Photographs entered as evidence in the case showed Gibbs and other soldiers laughing while posing with bloodied Afghan corpses.
(DW)
Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 26, who has been pictured smiling over a pleading and bloodied youth, was not given the automatic life sentence expected, and instead will be eligible for parole in eight and a half years.
The court heard that Gibbs was the leader of a brutal 'Kill Team', that took fingers from the corpses of their victims in Afghanistan's south.
The verdict and sentence marked the culmination of an 18-month investigation of atrocities carried out by US military personnel committing during a decade of war in Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials have said the misconduct exposed by the case, which evolved from a probe of drug abuse within Gibbs' infantry unit, damaged the US image around the globe.
His civilian lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse, asked the panel for leniency in its parole decision, saying Gibbs had ample time for reflection during his pre-trial confinement and "is not the same person he was when he went to Afghanistan".
Photographs entered as evidence in the case showed Gibbs and other soldiers laughing while posing with bloodied Afghan corpses.
(DW)
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